Flesh to metal
Chapter one
Last days of spring – the air is warm and full of sweet scent of flowers, sap and fresh leaves. The birds are in full on serenade mode, chirping between each other in their own language, fighting over the attention of the ladies, while somewhere at the back echoed trumbs of the woodpecker, trying to get to savoury bugs. The bees were in full swing – flying from one brightly coloured flower to another, gathering sweet nectar to turn it in to wild honey, butterflies were flapping around, showing of display of colour with ballerina like agility and sweet ladybug crawled up the trees.
The weather promised to be nice and worm, sun finely heating the cold corners of UK, and subsequently, getting all the people out of their hot houses, either looking for cheep fans to help them could down or going out to lakes, parks and rivers to deal with heat wave. A group of people were doing the same, but instead of seeking cooling comfort of water they all decided it be nice to go explore local cave system, that reportedly promised cold temperatures and a fun day of understanding history. seating by the window, staring out in to the passing by huge trees of century old forest , time to time parting to give view of far away land of fame, a young woman sighed heavily, adjusting her square blue glasses to be able to see better and make sure the glare of rising sun will not get in her brown eyes with such force that it made her scrunch her face. The bus was loud with sound of cartoons and games, parents giving their kids loud destruction to try and shut them up, preferring to listen to this noise rather then their little crotch goblins screaming their lungs of and asking when they will arrive to their destination. Letting a grunt out, she turned to the side, catching an eye of a little girl, staring dagger at her with wide her green eyes, hogging a plush of teddy bear, blinking a bit before pointing up at her head. It took a second for things to click at what kid was staring, smiling softly and moving her ponytail to the side so that the kid can get a better look at it. The reason the kid was staring at her so hard is because of just how brightly and boldly her long hair was coloured, standing out in the sea of natural hair colours.
It was a bright electric teal roots down to middle of the length, which reached her shoulders, then slowly bled in to bright purple-pink, dropping down to her chest. Flexing her hair by moving it to make it wave, woman smiled as kids eyes somehow grew even wider, a wide smile with few missing teeth shining brightly as the kid tugged on her mom, loudly proclaiming that the girl indeed was a mermaid like she thought, making the woman smile with pride that she made some kids day a bit better with meeting a mythical creature, hidden in plane sight. Turning back to the window, she sighed heavily, then looked to the side again, gently elbowing a man by her side, who jolted awake and pulled up his cap up, sleepy brown eyes darting around for a second before focusing on life with a grunt, seating up and letting hum of question.
“Almost there, Nolan, you asked me to wake you up” Trying not to chuckle as the man still struggled with reality, blinking over and over, rubbing his eyes and face, slowly adjusting to the noise. “Need water?”
“Mh? Ah, yeah, please” Nodding the woman reached in to backpack in-between her legs, pulling a bottle of water out, separate from hers, to keep it clean and sanitary, passing it to the man, who happily drank the water with hunger, and the whole bus slowly started to wake up as well, parents getting their kids to put their loud toys away and the bus finally pulling up to a hidden path, the bus rattling as it drove on the rocky road, people holding for their deer life while kids screamed something about fun. Finally the bus came to a stop in the thick of the forest, doors opening and every one started piling out, standing up and grabbing their bags, while Nolan and mermaid coloured woman waited patiently for people to clear up so that they can get of without bumping in to anyone, pulling up their heavy backpacks and leaving the bus, making sure to not forget anything. The air in this dense forest was a little bit cooler then it was in the bus, but still hot that people were fanning them self with booklets while a tour guide tried to get attention of kids and established strict rules that needed to be followed on this two day trip and cave expeditions, reminding parents to keep their kids on tight leash and were the lodges are.
“Kind of excited for this trip, huh, Katya?” nudging the girl in her sides, making her smile from sensation of tickling and move sideways, quickly trying to create a space between each other. Yes, Nolan and her were friends, but right now she is hot and not in a mood to be touched by someone sweaty “So, what’s the plan? How it goes?”
“Well, from reservation information , we will go to our lodges first to drop off our things, get shower and what not and at 14:30 we will gather in the dining area to go for the cave expedition. After that dinner and campfire.” Shrugging, Kate wrapped her hands around her self, folding them o her chest, leaning on one leg for comfort, getting her self to rest after hours of seating on her ass, which was not the best feeling when your ass goes numb. The man nodded, agreeing to already arranged plan for the day, looking up to see what will happen now. With the wave and a name call, tour guide lifted his red flag up and begun leading group deeper in to the forest, in between wooden fence and gravel path, rocks and sand crunching loudly under countless footsteps. The Lodges were more deeper in the forest, surrounded by tall, centuries old, trunks and lush crown of leaves, birds song echoing loudly and adults rushing their kids in to old wooden buildings made out of logs, with windows clean and shiny, with build in mosquito nest. Walking up to their lodge after guide gave out the keys to every one, informing of charge if they loos them, Kate slid the key in to lock and turned it, letting her self in and Nolan followed behind. The place was not big or small, enough to have two separate bedrooms, simple room for shower and a room with sofa and TV. In whole the feeling it gave of some old lady that used to live here, soft carpet and white curtains to keep nosey people out, but over all a good place for the price they paid. Going to the room on the right, Kate claimed it as hers for two nights, closing and locking the door behind, dropping her bag down and laying onto the bed to rest after a long ride, her bones getting a bit of rest and time to change in to something appropriate for physical activities, pulling put a light cyan tight fit light workout shirt and black leggings, switching from heavy jeans and shirt, feeling already much lighter and slipping on soft sneakers, sneaking out of her room and taking a seat in a sofa, patiently waiting for the time to go into caves, getting a bit excited.
Finally the time for cave exploring came and every one followed the leading tour guide to the entrance, being careful to not slip and fall, relying on faint light of cheep lanterns to guide in the darkness, giving people a chance to get a glance at cave painting left by other guest as a fun activity. The cave was much colder then the hot air outside, letting everyone breathe with sigh of relief as they ventured deeper, making sure to not let kids run as the cave had a lot of paths and intertwined so widely it was compared to maze, only far more dangerous. Listening to the tour guide explain something about stalactite, Kate felt a gentle tag on her arm and looked at Nolan, who nodded to the side and begun walking away from the group, stepping over faint rope and going in to other cave opening, confusing Kate for a moment, making her constantly look between safety of a group and her friend, who stupidly decided to explore, meaning he will be alone, which she honestly did not wanted to happen, and mostly because she was not ready to deal with questions about her friend going missing. So she did something stupid – she followed him, whisper yelling his name, tripping on rocks and dark, pulling phone to light her path, just like Nolan did.
“Nolan, we need to get back!” angrily whispering, she reached for him, gripping his shoulder for safety and hopefully to make him to turn back, faint sound of rumbling echoing around. The sound of bats flapping made the girl jump in her skin, suddenly clinging on to man for safety, making him laugh at her fear. Ignoring the continuous worried rumble of the girl, the man continued walking forward, illuminating the path with his phone and noting on rocks and how fun they looked. The rumble grew louder, drawing him closer to it, with Kate constantly asking to turn back
“Come on, when will be the next time something like this will happen! Isn’t it adventurous!” laughing a bit, the man spotted a crack, going for it and forcing him self in, he disappeared between rocks, leaving Kate alone in the dark cave, with only light coming from her phone and no way back as she did not paid attention to the path and unlike Nolan, who was a notorious cave dweller, exploring all the small caves in their town, so she was left with no choice but to follow. Swallowing her pride, she squeezed in to tight crack, struggling with her chest, fighting for the breath as she forced her self forward, the sound of drumming growing louder and becoming more familiar, reminding her of work construction noises. Finally pushing through to the other side, she almost fell, taking heavy breaths as Noah caught her, his light blinding her for a second, slowly adjusting to the atmosphere, her eyes growing wide with shock. The tunnel they were in now was perfectly smooth, like it was dug by some kind of machine, which was a bit confusing but at the same time it explained the noises. What was strange is just how huge the tunnel was, going as high as a huge , five store building, cranking her head to be able to see the roof. The light struggled to illuminate such huge space, moving their phones all over the place to see where they were.
“Where are we? Is it some kind of tunnel for trains? Mining?” moving her phone around and getting her balance back, she pushed away from Nolan, eyes wide from shock and heart beating a bit fast with worry of being caught as the idea of being caught by miners when they probably should not be here at all. “I don’t tink—Nolan!” Scream whispering as Nolan started going forward, Kate chased after him, trying to keep up with him, stumbling over rocks left behind, her light moving eagerly all over the place, slowly getting worried for battery life. The rumbling by now was loud as hell, mixed now with sound of clanging, luring Noah closer and closer, dragging girl behind her with his curiosity. The tunnel was long, with many other branches weaving of to the left and right, staying as big as the main tunnel. Finally it reached the end, opening in to another hole, bathed in bright light, the noise here was by now deafening, with mix of sound of rock falling, hitting ground heavy and voices. It felt wrong, making her hair on her arms and neck stand up with chilling cold, lowering her self down and sneaking after Nolan, who let her far behind, constantly calling his name to try and get his attention and get the fuck out of here, not wanting to get in to trouble with who ever was drilling. Sneaking up, she placed a hand on his shoulder, making jump and turn, fist high ready to strike, claiming down quickly and dragging Kate down, placing a finger to his mouth, eyes wide. His whole expression radiated fear and worry, making Kate worry for her self as well, following his finger pointing to the side and mouthing “look", while forcing her phone down to hide light.
Keeping down to the ground, Kate shuffled closer and poked in to hole, her heart dropping immediately at the strange sight in front of her. The whole cave was clearly carved out in circle pattern, with glowing blue crystals growing out of the ground here and there, providing the light to the dark cave. There were countless entrances, round and manmade, but what made Kate’s heart drop is what was moving. Between the huge blue crystals was strange huge metal creatures, moving along the cave like they knew what they were doing, using huge drills to dig in to rock and collecting the Crystal’s, cutting them in to cubes, which then they wheeled towards a certain round cave. There was a lot of them, all looking somewhat similar, with something red glowing on their face, and sound of voises echoing around. Well not all of them. In the middle of this “mining” operation stood a strange robot that looked so much different to all the bots around, having more light grey colours and taller, with thin arms constantly moving, clearly screaming commands and strange triangle thing behind his back, constantly moving up and down like wing.
“What the fuck is this?” whispering with fear, Kate breath become ragged, gripping on the man for support, her brain trying to process what it is she was looking at, blinking and fixing her glasses over and over. “Nolan, what the fuck is this?! “
“How the fuck should I know? Aliens? Government?”
“Yeah, right government—Duck!” quickly diving behind the rock, Kate let out a quiet scream as one of the bots suddenly looked up, the one that looked different to others, his red eyes momentarily connecting with Kate’s brown eyes, making her fear for her life as she practically fell on the hard ground, letting out a swear as it hurt. “Shit, I think it saw me!”
“What?!”
“I think, I think it saw me" stumbling over her word, Kate gripped on his shoulder, scared to fuck, cold sweat forming on her forehead, her breath even more fast, heartbeat echoing in her head “Nolan, please, we need to leave!!!”
“Okay, okay, just let me-" despite Kate’s constant please to leave, he turned the light off on his phone, switching to camera and sneaking closer to the opening and reaching his phone over the edge and pressing a button, taking a picture, pulling back and turning to leave, grabbing Kate by hand and leaving the exit, moving quietly, dragging her behind in hurry to get away. Reaching a fork, Nolan suddenly froze as huge foot landed in front of him, forcing him to back up, Kate letting out a yelp as the huge robot slowly moved from behind the corner, forcing two humans to look up with fear. The long sharp face looked down at them with malice, a sly grin slowly spreading on it as red eyes zeroed on them, swiftly switching between two of them, long thin metal hand clasped behind as it was slightly bent, the triangle wings twitching up. Up closer it looked quite thin and slender, making its appearance even more terrifying as it blocked one of the paths, slowly chuckling.
“Well well well, what do we have here?” its raspy voice echoed from all over the cave, making Kate literally claw at Nolan’s arm, panic completely overtaking her “Two pest wondering in? Tsk tsk tsk" its red eyes scanned them both, mostly focusing on the girl, making her slowly regret bright colours she chose to die her hair. “Well, we can---"
A sudden push from the side made Kate violently stumble forward, tripping over her own feet and falling down on her knees, hitting the rocky ground with quite a force to make her let out a swear, catching her self with arms before her face could connect with ground, fear now replaced with confusion, quieting the echoes of beating heart, and the bot, who audibly choked on his words and took a step back, his footstep echoing loud around and sending small shockwaves through rock. The silence hung like dead air, leaving both girl and strange bot with red eyes and sharp chin confused, while a faint echo of footsteps running away echoed around. Blinking a bit with wide eyes and frowned brows, Kate looked up at the bot, her glasses sliding bit down, which she instinctively fixed, staring at the huge robot with confusion, the same confusion as the bot stared at her with same expression, his red eyes focused on her then up. What... what just happened? Turning to check behind, she could only see Nolan’s back, growing smaller by the second, his legs moving fast as hell, light swinging up and down... did he just pushed her in front of the bot as a sacrifice to save his ass. Getting up slowly to her feet, she just stared at him, as he turned a sharp corner, completely bewildered by his actions.. after every thing he spoke about, constantly saying how strong he is, talking about going to gym, how he was a gentleman and constantly showing of his car, gold neckless and every thing else. Looking up at the alien, she can see it confused as well, staring at her with wide eyes, frozen. Was he shocked as well. Turning back to the corners behind which Nolan disappeared, Kate looked back and forth, trying to understand just what to do, her brain buffering and refusing to put two and two together, finely breaking from the strange stupor, taking one step, then another, before bolting away from the bot, anger bubbling inside while giant bot with triangles behind begun slowly chuckling before erupting in to loud cackle.
“Nolan, you fucking dick!!!” screaming on top of her lungs, Kate run as fast as she could, forcing her body to move, navigating in the dark with the phone, the thunder of laughter calming down, replaced by thuds and mocking that she was left behind so easily, making her fear for her life, though it did not take much from giant monster to catch up and wrap his long talking metals fingers around her with such speed, it left her breathless when wind whistled in her ears as she was lifted quickly, ground disappearing from beneath her feet, scream ripping out her throat, quickly quieting when she was forced to face the metal face, squeezing her self in to hand, tears slowly forming in the corner of her eyes and bitter lump choking her. The creature squinted, tilting its head side to side, turning her, while she was frozen and feeling her soul being burned by the red gaze. It hummed, squinting, reaching with other talon, poking at her head, humming.
Screaming command at vechicons, Starscream huffed angrily, glaring at the countless copies of what seemed like the same bot working around, moving cubes of energon from one side to another, making sure that they were doing a good job. Even if this planet was reach with energon, the last command of Megatron before he left for Primus knows where was to make sure that autobots would not get even a shard of it, meaning that they would have to mine all of it out, which was not easy as this dirt planet seamed to grow more and more of it by the day. Now with his master back, seeker was doing his best to avoid the warlord, using his “responsibilities” as to get away from constant fear for his wellbeing. Wings twitching as one vechicon tripped, catching him self quickly, Starscream barked and him to be carefull, when sudden faint but clear flash of light caught his attention, lifting his head and spouting a small human with bright hair quickly ducking down... great, one of the Earthlings found the mining site. He does not need this right now, but also might be a bit of fun as from last report he heard autobots got them selves some human pets. Grinning, he barked for vechicons to continue their job and not slack off, left the middle of the huge cave, going through the caves towards the spot where he spotted human. Able to hear them scramble with what he can assume another human, he quickly stepped forward from behind the corner, slamming his foot down and scaring organics as he slowly walked from behind the wall, servos folded behind, looking on them with disgust. Great – two of humans, male and female, the ladder quickly clinging on to the other gender, eyes wide with fear. Though he was a bit flabbergasted by such vibrant colours of the female, standing out against the dark and normal hair he has seen so far, smiling a bit as he begun mocking them, though quickly stopped when men suddenly and violently shoved the woman forward with such force they fell on their knees in front of him, legging it away and abandoning what probably was their mate to his mercy. The woman looked up at him with confused look, fear replaced by shock as they stared back, slowly getting up and just switching between staring at him and the man, who disappeared by now. Letting out a scoff, Starscream frown in confusion before completely losing it, laughing as they booked it, swearing the man out for leaving them behind so easily.
“Wow! He really just let you behind so easily!” mocking running away female, he followed them, giving just a bit of hope before catching up to them with few steps, swooping down and catching them with a simple swipe, his digits easily wrapping around them, feeling their soft body thrash in his grip as he lifted them and freezing up once at his eye level, eyes wide and only able to let out squeaks of fear. Letting another scoff, he squinted, moving them side to side, examining their bright hair. Was it one of the female courting tactics to get partner – strange tactics, but interesting, which does make them standout against all the dull colours that were usually ranged from black to blond, with time to time being reddish brown, though not as bright as this ones, basically giving of peacock vibes, where they show of vibrant colours to get attention. The female by now was silent, tears rolling down silently, probably waiting to be hurt. Lifting his other servo, he poked at their head, scooping thick braid and examining the colour with quite a curiosity. This human was rather strange, quiet, when usually humans would be screaming their little brains off, begging to be freed and spared, which annoyed him so much he would quickly despose of them. Letting a grunt, he examined her even closer, noticing metal ring hanging from her nose and a small metal ball in the right corner under her lip and two golden ring hanging from her ear. The left arm was completely decorated, from palm to shoulder with black lines, visible of sun, chains with flowers and what he can see some king of snakes. Clearly they did their best to look their best to impress the male. Speaking of, looking back, not able to hear or even smell the male, Starscream grimaces in disgust at how easily they left they mate behind, thinking of just how pathetic human race is. Back on Cybertron, before war, conjux were much stronger bonded, not leaving one another behind in dangerous situation and staying till their last moments. Before he can mock woman about it though, a sound of blaster echoed around and he turned around quickly, wings lifting up as he quickly recognized what it was
“Autobots” hissing out, he moved towards the hole, glaring down at the battlefield of red and blue blasters, able to see vechicon losing quickly, falling faster then flies as the autobots did their best to capture this mining vain to get their servos on precious energon.. hold on where is... hearing blast charge behind him, Starscream quickly turned around, extending his servo with human in front of him, getting a shrilled whimper as she gripped on to him, legs kicking and the sound of blaster quickly cooling down. Grinning, he stared down blue fembot, who was scowling at him with such hate it ranked with hate that radiated from Megatron, stance ready to fight but frozen because of one simple rule they had – No harm come to human. Chuckling darkly, Starscream quietly mocked the autobot, cocking his head with a grin.
“What’s the matter? Afraid you’ll harm this human?” shaking the human just a bit, forcing another whimper out of them, second in command took a step back, his red eyes focused on the blue fembot, knowing well that she was out for energon after Cliffjumper deactivation and Megatron twisted idea of using him as first experiment to see if he can raise dead. The fembot grumbled something under her breath, here blue eyes constantly shifting between him and human, clearly contemplating striking him, not that he has a human actively in his grip, where even a slightest squeeze was fatal. And they both knew this “Well come on then, do something, save this little human?”
“Let them go, Starscream!” grunting out Arcee took a hesitant step forward, squinting, her blasters still glowing blue, but not hot enough as to pose danger, and decepticon knew it well. “Let them down now!”
“Mmh" humming to him self, decepticon hummed deep in thought, trying to see what will be best to do right now. He can through human at bot, restricting her to actually get a chance of getting away scrap free, but he might be shot at during his escape and calling for Soundwave right in front of autobot will make her call for backup and he has zero chance at winning of he faces all the remaining autobots. So it be best for his own plating to keep human as human shield. “Mhhm, yeah no, I think I might keep this one as a pet" grinning, he acted quickly, jumping in air and transforming quickly, shoving human in to cockpit and blasting towards fembot, forcing her to duck, loudly flying over fembot with mocking laughter, human finally letting out much awaited scream.
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